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TRAPPISTS

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 214 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TRAPPISTS , Cistercian monks of the reform instituted by Armand J. le B. de See also:

Rance (q.v.), See also:abbot of La Trappe, 1664. La Trappe was a Cistercian See also:abbey near Soligny, in the See also:diocese of See also:Sees, in See also:Normandy, founded 1140. It suffered grievously from the See also:English See also:wars and from commendatory abbots, so that towards 165o the community was reduced to See also:half a dozen monks who had See also:long ceased to comply with the obligations of their See also:state, and were an open See also:scandal to the neighbourhood. Armand See also:Jean de Rance became commendatory abbot at the See also:age of ten, 1636; and on his See also:con-version from a worldly See also:life he began to See also:interest himself in his abbey and conceived the project of restoring the monastic life therein, 1662. With this See also:object he visited La Trappe, but the monks were recalcitrant and threatened his life; through the intervention of See also:Louis XIV. he was able to See also:pension them off; they were replaced by a community of See also:Cistercians of the strict observance, and the monastic buildings, which had fallen into ruin, were repaired at de Rance's expense. He himself then entered the novitiate in one of the reformed Cistercian abbeys, and on his profession he came to La Trappe as See also:regular abbot, 1664. But he desired a return to the full See also:programme of the See also:primitive Cistercians. His See also:influence with Louis XIV. and with the See also:court of See also:Rome secured him a See also:free See also:hand in carrying out changes without trammel from the Cistercian superiors, who looked askance at the project; and he was able to persuade his community to adopt a manner of life beyond the See also:original Cistercian practice, and far beyond St See also:Benedict's See also:rule. Thus they abstained wholly from See also:wine and See also:fish, and rarely See also:ate eggs; on certain days they had only See also:bread and See also:water, and on two days in the See also:year they went barefooted; and they slept in their See also:day clothes: these practices are in See also:contradiction to what St Benedict allowed. On the other hand See also:manual labour occupied only 3i See also:hours, but the See also:church services 7—herein See also:reversing St Benedict's apportioning of the See also:time. In See also:short, the Trappist regime is probably the most See also:penitential that has ever had any permanence in the Western Church. Yet it attracted vocations in such See also:numbers that de Rance had 300 monks under him.

Through age and See also:

ill See also:health he resigned his abbacy in 1695, and died five years later. During the 18th See also:century La Trappe continued faithful to de Rance's ideas, but the observance spread only into two monasteries in See also:Italy. It was the dispersal of the community at the See also:French Revolution that turned the Trappists into a See also:congregation in the Cistercian See also:order and finally into a See also:separate order. Dom See also:Augustine de Lestrange, the novice-See also:master at the time of the suppression in 1790, kept' twenty of the monks together and obtained permission for them to See also:settle at Val-Sainte in See also:Fribourg, See also:Switzerland. Here they made their life still stricter than that of La Trappe, and postulants flocked to them in such numbers that in two years' time colonies went forth to establish Trappist monasteries in See also:England, See also:Belgium, See also:Piedmont, See also:Spain and See also:Canada; and in 1794 Dom Augustine was named by the See also:Holy See See also:Father Abbot of all these See also:foundations, thus formed into a congregation. In 1817 they returned to La Trappe, many new foundations were made, and by Dom Augustine's See also:death in 1827 there were in all some seven See also:hundred Trappist monks. In the course of the century three or four congregations arose—a Belgian, an See also:Italian, and two in See also:France—each with a See also:vicar subject to the See also:general of the Cistercians. In 1892 these congregations were See also:united into a single Order of Reformed Cistercians, or of Strict Observance, with an abbot-general See also:resident in Rome and See also:independent of the general of the Cistercians of the See also:Common Observance. In 1898 the Trappists recovered See also:possession of Citeaux, the See also:mother-See also:house of the Cistercians, secularized since the Revolution, and it was declared by Rome to be the See also:head and mother house of the Reformed Cistercians, who thus were recognized as the See also:authentic representatives of the primitive Cistercian See also:movement. The Trappists are a thriving and vigorous order. In 1905 they had 58 monasteries with 1300 professed See also:choir monks and 1700 See also:lay See also:brothers. At the time of the See also:recent expulsions (1903) they had twenty houses in France, and they have two or three in all the countries of western See also:Europe, including England (See also:Mount St See also:Bernard, near See also:Leicester) and See also:Ireland (Mount Mellery in See also:Waterford and See also:Roscrea); also in the United Statesand in Canada.

Besides they have a house in See also:

China, with over fifty See also:Chinese monks; one each in See also:Japan, See also:Asia See also:Minor, See also:Palestine, Bosnia and See also:Dalmatia, and four in various parts of See also:Africa. The abbey of Mariannhill in See also:Natal is devoted to the christianizing and civilizing of the See also:Kaffirs; there are numerous stations with elementary See also:schools and chapels, and at the abbey is a high school and See also:printing-See also:press for books in the Zulu and Basuto See also:languages. In See also:heathen countries the Trappists now give themselves up to missionary See also:work and the task of civilizing the natives. The first Trappist nunnery was the abbey of See also:Les Clairet, near See also:Chartres, which de Rance persuaded to adopt his reforms. Dom Augustine de Lestrange established another in 1796, and now there are fifteen with 350 choir nuns and 500 lay sisters. One is in England at Stapehill, near See also:Wimborne, founded in 1802. The manner of life of the nuns is almost the same as that of the monks. See the Lives of de Rance. A See also:minute See also:account of the observance is in de Rance's Reglemens de la Trappe (1701). The beginning of the reform is told by See also:Helyot, Histoire See also:des ordres religieux (1718), vol. vi. ch. 1; the developments under Dom Augustine de Lestrange are described in the supplementary See also:matter in See also:Migne's Dictionnaire des ordres religieux (1858). The whole subject is well treated by Max Heimbucher, Orden u.

Kongregationen (1907), vol. i. § 48; and in Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexicon (2nd ed.), and See also:

Herzog, Realencyklojddie (3rd ed.). A realistic and sympathetic picture of Trappist life 1s the redeeming feature of J. Huysman's En route. (E. C.

End of Article: TRAPPISTS

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